School Nurse Reflection Paper

School Nurse Reflection

For this assignment I was able to interview and observe two licensed school nurses, Dawn Swanson at Highland Park Senior High School and Mary Hurtley at Highland Park Middle School. Highland Senior HS is located in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, MN. Enrollment is approximately 1200 students in the ninth through twelfth grade. Highland Park Middle School is adjacent to the High School Campus with 800 students in the sixth through eigth grade. Both schools serve diverse ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural populations. Dawn Swanson has been a licensed school nurse in St. Paul for 21 years and has practiced in elementary, middle and high schools. High school students are her favorite population, she especially enjoys working with students as they become independent young adults. She is in her first year at Highland Senior, Dawn has loved the experience thus far, observing her interact with the students this was very apparent, Dawn was warm, inviting and yet firm in her approach with the students I

Leadership is “the process and art of influencing, motivating, and leading others to achieve shared goals” (Garcia, Schaffer, & Schoon, 2014, p. 354). This certainly appeared to be the case in my observations, as members of administrative groups, professional development communities, special education teams and possessing the characteristics described above, both of these nurses school nurses seem well positioned to